- April 19, 2024
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The city's Child And Babysitting Safety training program gives participants the tools they need in emergencies, as well as a few business tips.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
Universities prepare students for life in the “real world,” and the city’s baby-sitting university is no different.
The Ormond Beach Fire Department’s Child And Baby-sitting Safety training program covers basics, like changing diapers and feeding, in addition to more advanced skills, like first aid and child and infant CPR basics.
Participants don’t receive a CPR certification, but they do leave the class with enough knowledge to feel confident and not “freeze up” in emergency situations, said Lynn Taylor, an Ormond Beach Fire Department driver and training program instructor.
The fire department has offered the program three times, once every six months, and it’s popularity has grown to the point Fire Chief Bob Mandarino said parents from Port Orange and Sanford have called, trying to enroll their children. But right now, the program is exclusively for Ormond Beach residents.
The training program, for ages 11 to 16, is run with information and guidance of the the American Safety and Health Institute. The instructors, Taylor and Captain Meghan Quartier, draw on their experience as parents and fire fighters.
“For the city of Ormond Beach, now these participants are getting these life skills that they’re taking out to the community,” Taylor said. “And it makes Ormond Beach a safer place.”
The skills could also be used when participants aren’t babysitting, she said, if a participant encounters a situation where first aid or CPR is needed.
The class also teaches participants how to run the business side of babysitting and present themselves as responsible and capable.
“It kind of makes them a little more formal, and puts parents’ minds at ease,” Taylor said. “(That’s) kind of how the whole program looks at it.”
Simple, common-sense things, like not talking on a cell phone or not having adult shows on TV, Taylor said, aren’t always practiced. Having the right knowledge, and the experience to record emergency numbers, allergies and a child’s likes or dislikes, can separate the program’s participants from other babysitters.
“It’s another tool that goes along with taking it seriously and having that edge that a lot of that age group does not have,” Taylor said.
